Disclaimer:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I don't own the characters...
that's it.

Chapter 9- Backfire

"What if she goes through with it?" Remus asked, his face reddening just at the thought of it.

"She won't," Sirius said with confidence. "Lily wouldn't show that much, if anything. I give her two rounds."

The plan was as follows: invite Lily to play poker, teach her the rules of the game, and challenge her to a game of strip poker. If she accepted to be a part of it, they had to beat her until Lily was no longer willing to take clothes off, then offer an end to the game in exchange for the Goofster. They obviously wouldn't tell her to layer clothes like they planned on doing, just on the off chance that Lily won a round or two.

Arthur Weasley was even more of a genius than they had expected. Great man, to help them in this way; and the poker night hadn't even been the revenge Arthur had also helped plan for revenge of the recent prank the girls had pulled. They had thought they would be forced to wait for a whole year before having it again, but if everything went as planned, they would have it back in no more than an hour.

They heard a knock just as they were finished putting clothing on. James put a hat on and declared, "it's on now." He went to the door and acted as a gentleman while leading Lily into the room and pulling out a chair at the small table they had set up.

"This should be fun," Lily said. She had worn a white tank top with a jacket over, denim jeans, and socks and shoes. Sirius raised his estimate from 2 to five. He was sure she'd quit when she got down to the tank top and jeans; he was correct. "So, how do you play?"

"All right," Remus started, handing out cards. "Each player gets five cards. You want to get different combinations to beat the other players. You can exchange as many cards one time every round if you need to."

Lily wanted to badly to say she knew and to get on with the game, but she had already told James she didn't know anything about the game, so she just played along. "Okay," she said. Remus went on to explain about full houses, flushes, and what was better than what and the very basics of how betting worked, even though he assured her they wouldn't be using money.

They played a few practice games. Lily purposefully lost the first two or three, but decided to try her luck with the lenses on the next one. "Look I won!" Lily acted excited about that.

"Good job," James encouraged. They played a few more, and when the boys were sure Lily had the grasp of the game, they started the next part of the plan.

"Hey, who wants to make this more fun?" Sirius asked, rubbing his hands together.

"You promised me we wouldn't use money," Lily said.

"I wasn't thinking money," Sirius said mischievously.

"What were you thinking?" James asked, as if he didn't know.

"Just a little game of strip poker," Sirius said.

Lily's eyes got wide in shock, so this is what they were planning, she thought, but couldn't find any words.

"I don't know about that Sirius," Remus said. Good old Remus, Lily thought. "It's one thing when it's just us, but I doubt Lily would be up to playing it."

Lily looked over to him, sexist pig, she insulted Remus internally. "Who says I wouldn't be up to it?"

"I just figured you might not want to play with three guys and-"

"I'm in," Lily said firmly.

"Are you sure? If you're in that means you have to stay in the game no matter what," James told her, glad she was taking the bait.

"I'm sure," Lily said.

"All right," Remus said, handing cards out again. "Five card draw, no wilds, everyone who loses takes one article of clothing off, and you can only fold before getting your hit from the dealer."

Lily looked at her hand. She had one pair of 6's a queen, a two, and a seven. She looked at the other guys hands, and they didn't have much better. Lily also scanned the deck and could just barely make out the next tow cards; a queen and a six. Quickly she took the two and the seven and laid them down on the table and Remus handed her two more cards. She waited for them to all finish their exchanges as well. No one had folded and they started going around the table.

"Two pairs," James informed them.

"Straight," Sirius said next.

"You both beat me, I have one pair," Remus said, putting down his hand.

"I think this is a full house," Lily said, putting down her cards like she wasn't sure about it.

The boys looked at the cards, then at each other. They all took a deep breath and removed different pieces of clothing. Sirius removed his hat, Remus a sock (since they still didn't have their shoes), and James took off his shirt. James decided that if he was going to do this, he'd at least give Lily at glimpse of what she'd get for dating him.

Forty-five minutes later

James was now showing much of what Lily would be getting if she dated him, since he now sat in nothing but black and white striped boxer shorts. The other boys weren't much better off, Sirius only having a pair of jeans between in current state and being in the same predicament as James, and Remus having the most on with a shirt, light jacket and jeans.

Lily had lost a few rounds because she could only see so far into the deck. She had lost her shoes and one sock, but wasn't really in risk of anything just yet.

"Maybe we should stop, I'm getting a little tired," James said, before Remus could deal another hand.

"What happened to playing no matter what?" Lily asked, giving him a look that made him hate himself for saying those words earlier.

"Come on, Lily," James said desperately. He didn't want to show her this much of his body. "Can't we just call it a night?"

Lily thought about it; there was something James had that since he had received it Lily had been worried he might use it to blackmail her or something of the sorts, and seeing as they would probably try to get her back for tonight, if not for the last prank, she felt a sudden need to get it back. "I'll let the game end if I can have the picture you have of me from April Fool's day this last year."

"What?!" James said. It was the only good picture he had of himself from that day, due to the fact that Lily had made him look bald and he had different degrading remarks flashing on it all day. "No way!"

Lily looked at Remus, "Then deal."

Remus was starting to hand one of the cards out when James stopped him. "Wait, fine, I'll give you the picture."

July 21, 1979

Dear Diary,

Last night was more fun than I had anticipated. They obviously had something planned, as they thought I didn't know how to play and wanted to play strip style. Boys, honestly. I'm grateful for Kyla for giving me those lenses, because I'm sure I would have been in a spot otherwise. Then again, if I hadn't known I could win, I wouldn't have chanced that sort of game in front of a bunch of guys.

I got the picture of when James kissed me last April, so one good thing came out of it. At first I planned on burning it, destroying any evidence of it, but I don't know now. I might put them in with the rest of that day's pictures. I have to admit it looks kind of good. He seemed upset about it, but it serves him right for putting me into that situation to begin with right? I don't think I'll tell his mum about it though, because I'm not sure how she would react to the fact that they tried that. One things for sure, I'm never accepting another poker invitation.

A/N: Okay, I know this one doesn't have much to do with the scheme of things, but I wanted to establish how she came in possession of that picture, since it would have gone to James. That and I thought it would be funny this way. I really was surprised that no one mentioned that in their reviews of the other story to why Lily had that picture in her diary. Now you know if you were wondering. Next chapter will be what the guys' revenge, so stay tuned.

PLEASE review if you are reading this. If you want me to read your stuff, I can do so if you review and tell me, so please do so and tell me what you think while you're at it.

Thank you:

dafalcon: I know these are really short in comparison to what I usually write, but I like these that way to keep it to one big event and maybe some scheming in each chapter instead of writing a bunch at once. You read my mind with the strip poker thing! I knew I wanted a game of strip poker when I started this piece, and I found a good place to put it. I might have them start dating in this piece, or I might not. I haven't decided that yet. I might also write another thing of prank wars taking place in their 7th year, in which they would definitely be dating. Tell me what you think...

genieinabottle22: I won't update my son...wait I don't have a son... jk. Anyway, I'm glad you like this story, please tell other people about it =) Did you read the first installment of this one?

mochalattee: Peace, love and coffee... that's great! Except I don't drink coffee, so I'll just say peace love and hot cocoa. =) I agree that the Marauders need to get down from their high horse, but this is just a piece that's supposed to be funny, not any certain morals or anything here.

Kaci: Here's the next post. They'll probably stay very close together for now, because I feel like I know what I'm doing with this one, whereas some of them I actually have to think about how I want to present things.

Angela: I like bringing Arthur into this. I'm not sure if you've read the prequel to this one, but it brings him in by mention, instead of personage, but I wanted to bring him in here, since I could do so very easily. I like the idea that he was once like Fred and George, because you see the way he avoids reprimanding them and you have to wonder where that comes from. Thank you fro reviewing, and I hope you like this one!